Scott Brown War Chest Near $13 Miliion

Republican Sen. Scott Brown has accumulated a campaign war chest of $12.8 million, the most that any Massachusetts candidate for office has raised before at this early stage of a statewide race, according to the Boston Globe.

The huge total, the Globe noted in a report Tuesday, “signals that the GOP is again ready to rally behind Brown to hold onto the seat in what is expected to be one of the most-watched Senate races in the country.”

The newspaper said the last time a statewide candidate came close to raising the amount of money Brown has on hand was in the first month of Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry’s 2008 re-election campaign, when he reported a total of $9.9 million.

But even then, the Globe reported, much of that money came from what was left in his 2004 presidential campaign account.

“Thanks largely to your help, we just capped off our largest fundraising quarter since the special election in January 2010,” Brown’s campaign finance director, John P. Cook, wrote in an email to supporters Monday, referring to $3.2 million raised during the last three months of 2011.

Brown is expected to face off in the November election against Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren. According to the Globe, Warren has not disclosed her final fundraising tally for 2011.